


Paroxysm

by PunchDrunkPete



Category: Swapfell - Fandom, Undertail - Fandom, Undertale
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-10
Updated: 2016-10-09
Packaged: 2018-08-20 12:59:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,388
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8249983
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PunchDrunkPete/pseuds/PunchDrunkPete
Summary: A swapfell origin story of sorts.
I wanted to repaint the skeleton duo in a different way. One I think fits them better, and hopefully is more interesting. Not saying that any other portrayal is bad, or less good, I just wanted to give them a different kind of depth and tell my own story. 
I also wanted to do a version that wasn't straight up fontcest. Not that I care if people do that or not, ya'll babes do you, I understand the difference between reality and fiction as well as sexual nuance. -w- bThis is kind of for the challenge since it seems it's hard to not do a sexual version of the swapfell bros. (maybe I live under a rock tho too cause I haven't seen much depicting them that wasn't in some form sexual)
Anyway, please enjoy the show~





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [myself- you go glen coco](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=myself-+you+go+glen+coco).



> New to writing fanfiction, it's not my main creative medium so expect lots of errors at first.   
> Constructive criticism welcome and appreciated, unless you don't know how to do that or what that even means. In which case, who hurt you, why are you this way?

His bones ached, but this wasn’t new, this did not bother him. He loved this feeling. Another blow collided with his jaw, a blow hard enough to start a crack along the bone above his left incisor. Sparing day was his favorite day of training as a member of the royal guard. He loved fighting, the thrill, the adrenaline, the pain. He loved the pain more than anything; he loved receiving it as much as he loved inflicting it. Papyrus dodged the next blow and swung a right hook right into the other monsters astonished face, knocking them out cold. Papyrus stood slightly hunched over the felled guardsman in training. He spat out blood and looked up at the encircling monsters that were once cheering eyeing them to see who wanted to have a bad time next. Before anyone could step forward, the small but thoroughly intimidating Alphys broke through the crowd to make an announcement.  
“Sparing time is over, you’ll have to wait to get revenge on our famous pugilist.” She grunted in Papyrus’ direction. “Hit the showers and then make way to the courtyard, Asgore and Toriel have something important to say to you lot.” Alphys nodded at Papyrus with a smirk before leaving with the rest of the guardsmen.

Alphys and Papyrus were not really what one would call friends, they shared a mutual respect for the other on the grounds of how powerful they each were. But the two were gunning for the same position of head of the royal guard. At least, Alphys was gunning for it. Papyrus, only wanted to impress his brother, and so that he wouldn’t have to work under Alphys. But secretly, he only wanted it as an excuse to get into more brawls.  
Papyrus washed off the day’s activities, attended the king and queen’s meeting, which he found all but interesting, and finally began his trek home. The icey and sharp breeze of Snowedout met his rough and chipped bones, he found it welcoming. He trudged slowly up to the home he shared with his brother. He could have taken a shortcut to get here, but he was creature of habit and enjoyed the slow march to his home, the one place in the world he felt peace. The house was warm, all the lights were off and Papyrus breathed a heavy sigh of relief into the living room. His brother was not home yet, he would able to prepare dinner for him before he returned.

Despite his frequent attempts, Pap was a terrible cook. In the event where he only had to feed himself, he’d opt for just eating ravioli’s right out of the can. Which also happened to be his favorite meal. A meal he could only enjoy when his brother wasn’t home. Otherwise he’d be scolded for his “disgusting habits and taste in food,” and that he “should wipe the fucking dried sauce off his face.” He disliked displeasing his brother. All he ever wanted to do was to please him, make him happy, do anything to put a smile on his face.

Papyrus set to work on a meal he had been instructed to cook, one he couldn’t possibly fuck up. Step by step directions had been left for him written as if they were meant for a toddler. He followed these directions exactly and just as he finished setting the table the way his brother liked, the front door opened and slammed closed. Papyrus lifted his head and his whole body turned toward the sound. A warm smile spread across his face as his brothers face came into view.  
“Welcome home Sans, you’re just in time for dinner, I prepared what you asked me to. Alfredo, with garlic bread and a side of greens.” Papyrus gestured widely at the finely set table. His face still set with a warm smile searching his brothers face for a smile in return.  
But no smile came from the smaller skeleton.

Sans calmly sat at the table keeping eye contact with Papyrus. His gaze slowly shifted to the setting and the food. A gaze that analyzed and took apart everything before it. Sans shifted the napkin to be more square with the plate, adjusted the glass of wine, and finally lifted his fork and served himself a petite bite of the meal. Sans had another bite, and a small sip of wine. He dabbed his face carefully with the napkin before speaking in even tone, “Better, it’s still garbage, but…” Sans paused and seemed to force himself to say what came next. “It’s better….t-thank you.”

Sans sighed, got up from the table, and headed to his room. Papyrus sadly watched him go, the weight of his uselessness sat heavily in his gut. This feeling slowly began to boil into rage. He wasn’t mad at Sans however. He loved his older brother dearly, and he knew Sans loved him as best as he could, but the life Sans had to lead made him cold. Since the strange circumstances that lead to their father’s demise, Sans had to take on more responsibility than a monster his age should have. Sans became a royal scientist fairly young as there wasn’t anyone else qualified to take over his father’s work maintaining the core. As well as the task of void research. The latter, was the most taxing of San’s work, as it was currently one of the only possible ways for the monsters to escape the underground so the king and queen questioned him on it endlessly. This however was not the worst part of that job. His research required testing on souls. Day after day of this dark work slowly changed Sans. Papyrus would have described it as watching something wither away and be replaced with darkness. This is why despite constantly being harangued by his brother, Papyrus never got mad at him. Papyrus knew that his brother was deeply unhappy, he didn’t want to be in charge of the core, and be called in to fix it or look at it if it so much as got a scratch. And he certainly didn’t want to work on void research. Papyrus could vaguely remember a time when Sans would laugh, even make jokes. Or perhaps, that was only some wishful dream papyrus had had. Sans had no control over his life, every day, he was at the beck and call of the king and queen. His work was not of his choosing, his time belonged to others, it was a miracle if he ever ate or slept properly. To further the mind numbing daily tedium, Sans was made unofficially in charge of every aspect of science in the underground. At least that’s how it felt as result of constantly being needed by the other scientists to solve asinine problems. After countless days of this soul crushing work, Sans became extremely particular at home. Demanding things be a certain way and berating papyrus if the standard was not met. Papyrus grew to forgive this as well, seeing it as Sans’ dysfunctional way of having some modicum of control over his life. In another gesture of kindness and empathy towards his brother’s position, papyrus joined the royal guard and quickly ascended the ranks. But secretly, the guard was an escape more than anything. A place where papyrus could work out all the seething rage that built up inside him like so many smoldering embers. Anger for the way the underground forced his brother to become so cold, anger at himself for not being able to help his brother, and the anger he wouldn’t let himself feel towards his brother.

Papyrus heard a crunch and looked down at the wine glass he had picked up now shattered in his hand. The glass breaking was almost poetic for how Papyrus now felt. He had snapped inwardly and was beside himself with rage. With one motion he lifted the neglected dinner arrangement with magic and in another swift movement sent it all crashing into the sink. This only made a larger mess he would have to clean up. Papyrus ground his teeth in frustration and in a blink he was gone. He reappeared in a clearing in the woods somewhere deep behind his home in Snowedout. The clearing he had made himself. Broken stumps and splintered wood littered this clearing half hidden in snow. Pap stood in the middle of it all, shoulders hunched, body still, like a spring trap that could be released at any moment. And like a spring trap who’s latch had just been released, pap suddenly struck out at the trees still standing before him. With blinding speed, Pap landed punch after punch on the tree. Splintered bark and wood sprayed out around him as each punch cleaved chunks of wood away from the trunk. In mere moments pap felled three large pines. He stood again, body heaving with his heavy breaths. The bones of his hands bleeding and chipped. He looked up at the devastation he had caused, and around at the clearing he had made. No, the clearing his rage had made. The destruction he had wrought saddened him as much as it filled him with a kind of elation. His body ached and he loved it. He lay down in the snow and looked up at the eternity that was the ceiling of the underground. Dark and strange. His hands throbbed but it felt good. 

 

Sans sat in his room trying to calm himself. He hated that he was so harsh to his younger brother, hated that he couldn't help it. He hated that he was so angry all the time, and all the work he did for what?. He hated that he was so angry and that anger only made him angrier. He heard a crash downstairs that interrupted this inner monologue. He wondered if Pap had clumsily dropped and broken something. Sans went to investigate, before he reached the kitchen he saw the tell tale light of Pap teleporting out of the room. In the kitchen his plate lay broken in the sink. Guilt washed over Sans. It was uncommon, but he had decided that he needed to apologize to his brother. He knew Pap was trying very hard everyday to do right by him. He could feel Paps anger, and he could see the bruises and cuts he knew Pap had accrued on purpose. He knew he needed to say something to Pap before the one good thing in Sans’ life turned as cold as he was. Sans’ followed his brothers magic, he wouldn't be able to pinpoint where he teleported to, but magic as raw and strong as Pap’s wasn’t hard to pick out. Sans reappeared in the woods unsure of his exact location. The next thing he heard nearly made his soul jump out of his bones. A series of defanging bangs and cracks came from nearby. He crept toward the sound to investigate. What he saw in the clearing sent a chill down his spine. His brother with the intensity of a monster gone completely mad, obliterating gigantic pines with only his fists. Sans could feel the magical energy pouring off of his brother, it crackled through the air like static. Sans slumped against the tree he watched from. Trying to process what he had seen. The power, the anger, the frenzied look in his brother's eyes. It astonished him, and yet, it made him feel guilty.  
He knew he was part of what fueled this rage. While Papyrus may not be directly mad at him, he knew he was absolutely not helping to relieve any of that rage. Which only made Sans feel guiltier. A sick knot twisted in his gut, or where guts would be if he had any. Sans looked around the tree once more to see his brother now laying in the snow. Sans took this chance to approach his brother.

“You did all this?” Sans asked as he approached. He saw Papyrus flinch a bit as if slightly started by the smaller skeletons arrival. 

“Yea, so?” Papyrus said with a pouty tone. Keeping his eyes closed and not looking at his brother who now stood over him. 

Sans looked at his brothers bloodied hands and back around at the destroyed forest. A testament, to the will of his brother, or perhaps a testament to the beast his brother hid in his soul. Sans could only focus on the aspect that despite all the clear inner turmoil Papyrus had, he never took it out on his brother. Instead Papyrus was only ever amiable, subservient even. There at any moment to try and do anything to please Sans. Frustration coursed through Sans.   
“So,” His voice betraying his frustration, “ I demand that you stop this nonsense. Stop busting up your hands, you should just tell me what’s bothering you instead.” His tone, despite his best efforts, still sounded like he was cross. To his surprise, however, Papyrus let out a short chuckle and said “Yes my lord.” Smarm oozed out of these words. Yet, it was such a silly thing to hear his brother say, Sans began to laugh.  
He laughed and laughed, holding his sides and doubling over like it was in fact, the most hilarious thing he ever heard. Papyrus looked at his brother wide eyed. As if he’d seen a human appear from thin air and punch him square in the ribs. He hadn’t seen Sans so much as smirk since their father's mysterious demise at the Core in BoilingSea.   
“Is it… really that funny?” Papyrus asked. Sans stopped chuckling and wiped a tear from the corner of his eye socket.   
“It’s just so… It caught me off guard.” Sans smiled down at his now beaming brother.   
“You like it?” Papyrus cocked his head to the side inquisitively.   
“I do. Now get out of the snow, and come home. Let me show you how to cook the meal properly.” Sans held his hand out to his brother his face earnest. Papyrus accepted the hand and stood up, towering over his sibling and shaking off snow.   
“Yes my lord.” He followed this with a laugh and even a bit of a bow. Sans loved it, and with a flash or orange and blue, they teleported back home.


End file.
